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From Travel Enthusiast to Tech Entrepreneur: The Polar Steps Story with Koen Droste

·47 min·4 clips
Koen felt stress flowing through his stomach at his kitchen table before deciding to step down as CEO.
Koen, co-founder of PolarSteps, shares his journey from early web projects to building a travel app with 10 million users, discussing growth strategies, fundraising challenges, and his personal burnout during COVID. He highlights the company's organic growth, unique employee benefits, and plans for international expansion under a new CEO.

As heard by us

A grounded founder story about scaling, fundraising, and knowing when to hand over.

The episode follows Koen Droste from building websites for clients to co-founding PolarSteps, and the outline stays anchored in concrete steps: CompanySpot, the 2015 launch with three co-founders, and the app's rise to over 10 million travelers.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a travel-to-startup origin story with real founder tradeoffs, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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